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Pratchett's Women

Following on from her post last week about her favourite female characters in fantasy, Karen Miller has written further on Terry Pratchett's women:

Much has been said and written about the inclusion, or exclusion, of female characters in speculative fiction. A common observation made is that, so often, too often, women in fantasy, science fiction and horror fiction are reduced to objects of desire, sexual adjuncts to men, rendered pathetically helpless so they can be rescued, or are killed off as soon as possible in order to provide motive for the male hero’s journey, or pretty much airbushed out of the narrative altogether. Unfortunately there is merit in these criticisms of the genre, but one thing I can say without hesitation: you simply cannot point that particular finger at Terry Pratchett.

I've never been much of a Pratchett reader - what I had read felt like a particular brand of English humour writing, like Jasper Fforde: containing too much of a knowing wink to the reader; a bit too precious and twee - but Karen's comments are forcing me to take another look at Pratchett.